Motivation Weight loss: My Exercise Tips and Strategies

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Well it has been almost a little more than half the year now, and the fall months are starting to come in. Winter will be soon around the corner, the kids will all be back in school and little bit older as each year goes by.

However, at the moment I have been feeling the urge to get back into my fitness routine. I love working out and have pretty much worked out my whole life. I can remember running track, going to weight lifting class and all that good stuff.

Heck I even used to have my own personal trainer certification and worked in a gym.

Well things change and people change, we all go through things.

The past two years were quite a little hectic for me in which I ended moving twice and cutting off all my hair.

In the meantime, while taking care of everyone else I sort of put myself on the back burner and ending up gaining some weight. Not a lot, but enough where all the muscle that I did have has turned to mush.




Something, that I am not used to. I have always had some sort of definition.

So with a new spurt of action, I decided to get back in the gym and take things a lot more seriously!

Yikes:)

I even Hired a personal trainer, got my treadmill out the garage,  and set up a small workout station in the den.

It's time for Motivation Weight Loss to Take effect………

I plan to document my journey, letting you know what products I might use and how many inches I lost and so forth.

As you can see in the picture for my home gym, I have a bosu ball, a proform treadmill, a workout ball, step, a floor mat and some Velcro ankle weights.


When you are used to working out and then stop working out, for more than a year or so. That beginners pain creeps back up on you the first couple of times you workout.

I know that exercise is great for your health. It boosts your metabolism to help you burn more calories and fat. It also helps your body release hormones that improve brain function, while preventing and reducing depression.

You’d think with all these benefits it’d be easy to get and stay motivated to exercise.

Well It's not.

It can be really tough to get off the couch.

Here are five tips and strategies to make it easier:

1. Find something fun. The truth is if exercise isn’t fun you’re probably not going to do it. Who wants to stop whatever they’re doing and torture themselves? The good news is that there’s an easy fix. Do something fun. There are lots of activities that are both exercise and fun. Make a list of activities you like. For example, do you like to dance? Play football? Box? Swim? Ride your bike? Hike? Find an activity you love and make it part of your daily life. One Activity that I plan on incorporating is the wii just dance program. I ended up playing with this program over a family members house and loved it, I really broke out a sweat. Zumba fitness is one that I have tried also and love.

2. Make it a group effort. It’s easier to get and stay motivated if you have others who are counting on you. For example, if you and a few friends join a gym and go to the gym together. You can hold your friends accountable and vice versa. It’s a great way to get and stay motivated. You can celebrate each other’s success. You can motivate each other to push yourselves harder. All my friends have really long work hours So I just decided to go with a personal trainer.

3. Make it convenient and easy. Which is easier, driving to the gym thirty minutes away or running on a treadmill in your home? Many people are seriously pressed for time and finding a way to squeeze in a trip to the gym can seem impossible. Especially when you have kids, so most of my working out will be at home, and some gym.

4. Monitor and Track your progress. It’s incredibly motivating to set goals for fitness. Tracking your fitness helps you see what you’ve accomplished. For example, if you’re walking and running with a goal of eventually running a 5K race. Tracking how long you run each day will help you achieve your goal. You’ll
be able to see what you’ve accomplished and how to plan for the future. I decided to download Jillian michaels free fitness plan to see what it came up with. I added her  two phone apps. A motivation app and a slim-down app. Jillian Michaels program is only $4.00 a week and gives you everything you need to get started. Trackers, meal plans and workout routines to get you started.  I am alsotaking a look at diet power to add to my daily monitoring and tracking process for food.  I have always wanted a really tight body and I think watching what I eat really thorough  would help me reach my goals a lot quicker. They have a special on right now to Try DietPower FREE for 15 Days. In part two  I will let you know If I like it or not.

5. Vary your routine. It’s easy to get into an exercise rut. Simply changing your routine and your activity can prevent this from happening. Mix strength training activities with aerobic activities. Take walks. Take fitness classes from time to time.

Exercise is great for you. There’s no reason it has to be difficult. With a few simple steps and some advanced planning you can get and stay motivated to work out.

Stay tuned for part two of my Motivation Weight Loss Challenge.

How to Eat Real Food: Part Two

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Recently I discussed in part one  the importance of  how to eat real food. Now I would like to explain why I feel that grass fed meat and pastured animal products are better for you.

I have always believed that “you are what you eat” since what you eat can greatly affect your mind, your health and overall well-being. As in this video on how food can affect your mood. The speaker goes on to say that

Junk food equals junk moods.

I thought this was a powerful statement that really gets you to thinking!

Everything that we eat is made of nutrients, macro nutrients that are the building blocks of life for new cell growth. The human body is always in a constant state of Regeneration and this cannot happen effectively without proper nourishment.

 dining together

It is sort of like our skin which sheds all day long; when we bathe we are actually exfoliating our bodies sloughing off dead skin cells releasing the new ones to come to the top. The same thing happens inside the body with our cells. The old go away and new ones are formed.

With such a constant pace of cell regeneration, which helps to fight off disease it is best if we equip our bodies with best nourishment. Empty calories or substandard food will only ensure that our foundation for health and wellness is weak.

Eating food that is pretty much factory raised does have issues that come with them. Much of the animals today are raised in factory's that are meant to make them fat for slaughtering by having them eat empty calories.

If you have not had the chance yet to watch the film Food Incthan I suggest you do so. You can read my official review of it here since it goes into more detail in a video manner about the horrible conditions on how our food goes from factory to plate.

Many of the animals are fed genetically modified craps that has already been sprayed with pesticides that can harm their digestive systems. Cows are supposed to eat grass and roughage but instead they are fed grains and corn to make them fat. Sugars from the corn increase the fat content unnaturally and can cause disease. Chickens are shut in doors and kept from the greens and bugs outside (their natural habitat) in close quarters with really no exercise what so ever. But fed grains and soy once again to fatten them as quick as possible.

If you are what you eat, then what do we hope to become by eating animal products that come from factory farms?

Right.

real food today

This is a scary thought and it is one that paved the way for the rebirth of the grass fed and pastured foods movement. A lot of consumers are now looking for safer alternatives by seeking out beef from cows that are grass fed, and allowed to roam naturally with minimal pesticide interaction. They buy farm fresh eggs where the chickens are allowed to roam free and eat grass, seeds, bugs, fruit that is more natural to them.

Grass-fed meat is lean and has a fat content that more closely resembles chicken or wild game. This actually helps to improve your cholesterol levels instead of raise them. While it is low in the bad fats associated with high cholesterol, it is very high in the good fats, the omega-3 fatty acids. All of the nutrition from the pastures they graze translates into lean cuts of meat and delicious milk that are nutritionally superior and much healthier for your family.

Pastured eggs are said to have about 20 times more omega-3 fatty acids than their factory farmed counterparts. The moment you crack open a pastured egg you can tell from the dark orange yolk that you are eating something rich and full of nutrition. They also taste infinitely better than other eggs. Once you try them you will find you be hard pressed to ever go without again.

As the saying goes, we are truly what we eat!

What are your thoughts on the whole Real Food Movement?

P.S. Stay Tuned for Part Three of the series on How to eat Real Food!

Better Than a Box

How to Eat Real Food: Part One

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As I’m sitting here eating this gluten free chocolate chip cookie, I decided it would be a really great time to let you know about a really cool book that I have been reading.organic_farming

The book is called In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan who is the author of the omnivore’s Dilemma, and may I add a New York Times bestseller.

I have had the book for quite some time now and never got around to finishing it until now and boy what an awesome book! Michael Pollan really delivers in this book. He gives some great insight into what Real Food is and how we can come to know  how to eat in a more conscious manner. Which is not only better for ourselves, but will greatly increase sustainability of the world we live in.

If you do not know exactly what real food is than you might want to take notes.

Just kidding:)

As the decades have passed mainly in the latter part of the 19th century we have been inundated by mass media and marketing claims that the food we are eating is really healthy.

I mean right, who would really have questions about food that is supposed to be good for us, I mean since most of the food we eat is sponsored and given kudos from some of the biggest health associations out there.

But as we all know not everything that always shines is  always gold.

Right.

I mean I may sound harsh but that is just the stark reality of the food that is out there.

So what really is a Traditional Food Diet (way of eating)?

And why have many chosen this choice?

Well first off traditional eating is mainly getting back to the roots of eating, the real core food of what true food is. It is pretty much cutting out all the junk, the processed crap and really eating yummy, healthy wholesome food.

Traditional food is how we used to eat about 50 to 100 years before we had all the commercialized way of eating.

Which is pretty much governed by the food scientists.

Yes there are food scientists that exist who’s job is to take and re-create new ways of making food. That has never existed on its own, but is taken from real food sources, stripped of all nutrient values and than enriched once again( bread) to try to make it healthy.

As more and more companies came into play so did the power and money. Big money was an issue and now not only were they telling us what was healthy for us. The food corporations started to really make us believe that many of staples that have existed for centurys was bad fur us.

Like butter…….

It was this marketing that made us believe that good old fashioned butter would make us fat and that fake butter in the form of chemical laden margarine was actually the better option.

mamie via

They started processing traditional favorites and using marketing tactics to make us believe that these new foods and products were healthier for us, but in reality the companies are taking healthy nourished food in its true form, and depleting it of it true potential all in effect to gain a buck.

They remove the healthiest parts, while adding chemical preservatives and flavorings to make it tasty.

Likewise during that time period when the food corporations were just getting started they had to find a way to make many believe that the lard, or grease from animal products would make them fat. Never mind the fact that fake oils like processed vegetable shortening is actually really what will make you fat.

Not to mention the fact that low fat and skim milk is not all that they claim it to be, in fact your body needs fat to survive. The brain is made up of fatty tissues and needs good fats to function at its maximum peak.

Good fats such as good oils like coconut oil, olive oil, and real animal fats.

Real fat foods that nature provides are almost always better and healthier for us than what can be made in a lab, where critical fat-soluble vitamins A, D, K2 are often lost or removed. While at the same time many of foods we eat today are packaged in plastic bags or tin cans with with BPA (Bisphenol A) liners that can leach toxic substances into our food.

That is why many today are going back to a more traditional way of eating, the real food way.

I am not saying you have to go all gung ho, and drastically change your life to eat the real food way.

What I am saying that every little bit helps. When you start to eliminate the artificial , processed , colorful , pre-packaged foods. And start shopping locally by going to the farmers market, natural health food stores and buying fresh produce you will have already started a new way a eating that is more healthy and delicious for yourself.

Clever marketing may have made us temporarily believe that scientists could engineer better foods but vast increase in degenerative diseases afflicting us over the past few decades has made many of us rethink this position. If food is to be our medicine than we need to give the foods we eat a vast deal more consideration and return to traditional foods.

Here are a list of resources that you should look into if you want to know more about eating real food and a traditional way of eating.

Weston Price Foundation A great resource for learning about what traditional eating is and why it is so important. You should read this information great enlightening source of valuable material . Will leave you speechless.

The Nourishing Cook Great Site for learning some real food recipes easily and ready for cooking.

How food Impacts Your Mood– A previous post examining the roots of how food can disrupt your mood.

P.S. Click Here for Part Two and my official review of In Defense of Food.

 

 

Real Food Course

Learn How To Improve Your Immune System – For the Fall Months

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Now that we have entered the fall months there is an inevitable chance that we might likely somehow come into contact with someone who has the flu. Or possibly end up getting some sort of viral infection ourselves. And recently with all the new reports of super strains of viral infections developing, and mutations of ecoil bacteria becoming to resistant to antibiotics, would that not urge all of us to take a look at our state of immunity to see if it is really up to par. Even if it is able to ward off viral and bacterial infections this season.

According to flu.gov, it states that In a typical year, approximately 5 to 20 percent of the population gets the seasonal flu. Flu-related deaths range from 3,300 to 48,600, Quite a number for something that most people already have had and have some sort of natural immunity to already.




Flu-like symptoms can range anything from a runny nose, sneezing, headache, body aches, fever, and chills. And the list continues to go on with coughing, sore throat, and even some nausea.

Improving Your Immune System

So the question really is how can improving your immune system help you to ward off these pesky little viral infections. Or, for the most part, make them less as serious if you do have a case of the as I call them the sickies this season.

Well to begin with the immune system helps to protect the body from harmful bacteria, viruses, and many harmful organisms that could enter the body. From everything to what we eat, and wear, stress and physical activity levels can all play a part in a weakened immune system.

 

 

 

When your body is in a weakened state it is less able to fight off a virus when it comes along. Imagine for a moment you are a heavyweight boxer, and you only trained half the time for the big fight. When the actual day comes for the real fight your body is not as strong as your opponent's and you have a higher chance of losing the fight.

The same thing happens with your body, our immune system produces its own cells to fight off disease and infection through the thymus gland and spleen, and a couple of other organs. The cells are then transported to lymph vessels which create a barrier against infection.

Now, these cells can be damaged by unhealthy, running wild oxygen molecules in the body called free radicals from poor nutrition, smoking, alcohol, and environmental pollutants and the list can go on and on. When these free radicals produce they produce in high numbers making your immune system really in an awful state.

So now what can you do to improve your immune system?

•Eat a balanced diet high in fruits and vegetables, these important minerals give your body the main building blocks you need for healthy cells to be produced and stay strong.

•Focus on deep breathing techniques to replenish the oxygen level in your body.

•When you protect your cells with anti-oxidants and lots of oxygen-giving techniques like deep breathing and exercise it can go a long way in giving your body the strength it needs to stay health

•Be sure to get plenty of Vitamin E and C these two are the main two antioxidants that help to regulate the immune system. Even Vitamin A has been shown to have a dramatic effect on the immune system.

Your immune system is what will help to keep you healthy and taking preventative steps now will pay off in the long run when and if you ever get really sick, since your body already has the resources it needs to help you fight whatever might be off.

Want to know more about improving your immune system for the Fall months, then stay tuned for part two of this series: How To Boost Your Immune System

P.S. If you would like to really get a head start on boosting your immune system Native Remedies has to offer

 

Would Love to hear your comments on the issue, have you had any immunity problems this season?




How Food Impacts Your Mood – And The Real Food Revolution

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Did you know that the food you are eating can actually be doing you more harm than good. Well its true even if you think you are eating right and dieting than you might just be in for a big surprise. Many wonder why they feel the way that they do, with hypertension, headaches, insomnia, thyroid problems and all sorts of issues.

The way that we eat even affects our children and can exhibit itself in the form of hyperactivity, sleeplessness, obesity and even the inability to not hold their attention for long sorts of time. As you guys know I am mom of four boys and I have one son that has been dealing with chemical imbalances in his brain for quite some time now.

When I say chemical imbalances I am referring to hyperactivity and more things in which he has been evaluated and I refused to place my son on medication.

That is when I really started to learn more about how food affects the brain and the body, especially in kids with problems such as these.

I continued my long journey on learning more about some of the issues he was dealing with, until I came to learn about real food and the real food movement. Which was something I was pretty much doing at the time on my own already.  However I was able to learn tons of new stuff about how what we eat can actually affect our mood and our whole bodily functions. To the point of being able increase our lifespan or reduce it.

That I why I wanted to share with you some of the information I have known about for quite some time now. I wanted you to know more about why eating real food is ten times better for you and why it’s so great for your heart and immune system.

I have a couple books that I have read and will be doing a review on them, really soon!

The first one is the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook An excellent beginners guide that I refer to time and time again when preparing real food.

And the Second one is The Untold Story Of Milk makes you think why everything you thought about milk is wrong and what sort of milk you should be drinking!

Lots to come on these two reviews soon in my what I am reading book section.

I urge you to take a look into the real food for rookies e-course to get a great head start into what real food is and how it can benefit you in the long run.

You can learn more about that course here!

Till than check out this awesome video!

Here is a great video intro on how food can impact your mood and why you should get to thinking about what you are really eating.

P.S. I would love to know your thoughts on the whole issue and even if this is something that has sparked your interests?